Check And Mate
by RSophieK
Summary: solitaire3 theme 7. In quick succession, Goren used his knight and both rooks to capture his opponent's queen, bishop, and one pawn. [SpoilerS04x11 Gone]


**Disclaimer**: LOCI belongs to DW, NBC, etc.  
**Author's Note**: For the solitaire3 challenge on LJ.  
**Summary**: In quick succession, Goren used his knight and both rooks to capture his opponent's queen, bishop, and one pawn.  
**Feedback**: If it pleases you.  
**Rating**: PG/FRT/K+  
**Archive(s)**: Mine, solitaire3. Anybody else, email me.  
**Character(s)**: Goren. Also, Carver, Deakins, Eames, and an unnamed suspect.  
**Spoiler(s)**: minor for Gone (S04x11).

**Theme**: #7. knights and rooks

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

**Title**: Check And Mate  
**Author**: Sophie

It was an unorthodox method, to be sure. It was not everyday that a person wakes in the morning and expects an entire case, weeks of questioning and deducements, to hinge on a single chess game.

There were at least three pairs of eyes boring holes into his head and back from where he sat within the interrogation room. ADA Carver, at least, probably had left as soon as Goren sacrificed his first pawn. Eames was around--somewhere. Smart as she was, she knew what the outcome to this game would be; he would bet she already had begun the paperwork to close the case.

Captain Deakins was still inside the observation room. If the opportunity arose for him to avoid his office, he was there. Besides, Captain Deakins had learned to accept Goren's outrageous leaps and even more surprising abilities. He would watch the game until the end, enthralled as though he watched a contact sport on his big screen television.

The inexperienced lawyer of Goren's suspect would still be within the room with Deakins. There was no telling what that man would be thinking, and Goren did not bother to use a portion of his mental power to narrow things down. If anything, the man reminded Goren of witnesses to automobile accidents: if you watch the scene long enough, you start to think maybe it will not happen to you. It was typical catharsis.

Goren sacrificed another pawn, watching carefully as his suspect inched his pieces across the board.

A muscle ticked in his lower back and it distracted him from his contemplation of the third person in the observation room. The game reminded him that it wanted all of his attention.

In quick succession, Goren used his knight and both rooks to capture his opponent's queen, bishop, and one pawn.

The acrid odor of body sweat permeated the room. It was near time to finish the game with all the flourish of a well-played interrogation.

Goren watched his suspect's posture. The formerly arrogant and straight back began to slouch as his shoulders caved inwards to protect his soft chest. His hands, once so sure about his next move, hesitated and hovered over this piece and flitted back and forth to that one. The other hand rubbed his forehead, his ear, his chin; it drummed the table, too. Goren was certain that if he peeked at the man's legs, they would be tapping a rhythm unbeaten by any metronome in the world.

Far away but as close as the observation room, a door eased open and drifted shut. Goren shifted ever so slight and brought his suspect's attention away from the board.

He waved a hand, impatient, and said, "Your move."

The man scowled at the reminder. He could see that his time as a free man might soon be over.

Keeping his eyes on the man's face, Goren moved a piece quickly after the man finally settled and committed to a piece. A quick glance at the board showed Goren that the field was set.

The man cautiously advanced another pawn; Goren took it with his queen.

The man retreated his remaining rook; Goren sacrificed a bishop for it and made his opponent pay, a bishop for a bishop.

Check. He opted to move his king rather than protect it with a knight.

Goren attacked the vulnerable piece with his rook. It came up on the knight's blind side because the man had forgotten about it. The loss drove home a single point.

With the capture of the knight, the man now had his king protected only by a handful of pawns, all of whom were on the opposite side of the board.

He continued to move his king around the board, trying to evade Goren's steady advance. Turn by turn, the board shrank under the converging pieces.

Check and mate.

The uniformed officer entered the room and escorted the suspect to a holding cell.

xxxxx

He nodded at the congratulatory remarks from Captain Deakins and ADA Carver, who had returned to see the final play. ADA Carver's wry smile reminded Goren that it was the assumption of an initial loss that allowed him to trump his opponent.

"The last time you played me, you weren't that good," he remarked.

Goren replied with, "I let you win," making it as glib as he could be with his smirk.

ADA Carver just shook his head and let the comment slide by him.

"But tell me, Detective, how did you know he would not try to protect his king? If he had, the game would have be a lot longer."

Goren looked straight into the ADA's eyes and stated, "I have a good teacher." The answer was as non-committal as the ADA expected it to be.

However, he had waited a beat too long to answer, and it hinted the true answer to the ADA.

"David Blum," ADA Carver answered, to clarify things unnecessarily.

Goren, at that moment, turned to oversee the booking and other details of his chess opponent's transfer to prison; ADA Carver turned to Eames.

"The logs have him there every Saturday, one to four."

ADA Carver nodded, as though everything suddenly made sense to him. He exhaled a breath, saying, "Some teacher."

"Blum's a model prisoner, paranoia and all, Mr. Carver," she said.

"That's not what I'm worried about, Detective, and you know it."

Catching the hidden reference to Goren's family history of mental disease, Eames looked in the direction of the holding cell.

"God willing, nothing will come of anything."

He contemplated her words.

"God has a funny way of making our deepest fears come true," he said, quietly.

She nodded in agreement. "Until then, let him have all the enjoyment out of life that he can take."

"Even if that means chess on a weekly basis in a mental facility for prisoners?"

Eames left the question hanging in the air, joining Goren at their paired desks to finish their end of paperwork for the case.

FIN

© RK 11.May.2006


End file.
